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Brain explosion

This is usually my mission on my days off anyways; usually I get the dishes done and maybe some cooking, but by that point I get tired or distracted and just give up. Considering today started slowly, I decided it was a good theme to carry on through the day. I could clean/cook for a bit, then read if I wanted too. Do some laundry, then nap if I wanted do. Do some more cleaning, then blog if I wanted to. See the pattern?

On the blog front, I’ve had some ideas, but nothing has really turned into a post. Even now as I’m writing this, I have a feeling there were other things I wanted to talk about, but I can’t remember now. And none of them feel like they could be a blog post on their own, though I have a feeling this might be a slightly longer post than normal, and there’s only two random things I can think of right now.

The first is about my attachment to the colour green. First, some background — M. has been attached to the colour purple forever. Everything about her is purple, and if it’s not, believe me, it’s not for lack of trying. I don’t even know why I’m surprised anymore when she gets something new and it’s purple, or the synchro routine she coached had songs with the colour purple in it. I have a purple hoodie, and I told her they were selling them at Costco. She wasn’t interested until I showed up with one in that colour — then she was interested (she didn’t think before it would be purple enough or something). Seriously, it’s some wonder that I’ve managed to hang on to that hoodie and it hasn’t gone “missing.”

It’s funny, because every time I wear a purple shirt, or have a couple of purple things going on in my outfit one day, I automatically think of her. And as much as I tease her about being attached to the colour purple, I’ve noticed over the past year that I’m really attached to the colour green. This blog is green, my cutting board in my kitchen is green, I’ve repainted picture frames so they’re green, my wallet, phone case, hoodie and winter jacket are green …

My green jacket, hoodie and phone. Note that I am wearing a black T-shirt, and my lanyard for my keys is white. I have a green one from my university's students' association (which is funny, because our colours are blue and white) but this one has AP on it. And that's cooler than the students' association.

My other random though is an excuse to talk about marching band.

The first rule of being in the saxophone line of a marching band — have a good neckstrap. (I’ve talked about the second rule here, know how to teach.) The altos and the tenors both wear neckstraps; the baris wear a harness although I did too for a while, just because my wrist couldn’t support the weight of my tenor.

The wimpy neckstraps that come with all saxes are fine when you’re in a concert band, but believe me, it’s not going to cut it when you’ve got a 16-pound instrument hanging from your neck and you’re dragging it across a football field all day. The neopreen ones are the only way to go.

However, this cause some problems for the girls — during practice, we wear a lot of bikini tops, halter tops and tank tops because it’s so freakin hot (and yes, we have all had the funky tan lines to prove it, but that’s another story). For every other section, not a problem. But that knot in your halter top really digs into your neck when you’ve got another strap on top of it, attached to a 16-pound instrument. In the end, we learned to tie the knots a certain way, more off to the side so they weren’t digging into the back of our necks.

After surviving that for three years though, I find it really interesting that today, I put on a halter top to wear underneath the T-shirt I was wearing, and not even an hour later, I’ve got one of those aching headaches. Replaced the halter top with another tank top, and almost instantly felt better. I have another shirt I tie at the back, and it’s a struggle too, to tie the knot tight enough so it won’t slip, but not tight enough that I’m uncomfortable.

There’s not really a resolution to this story, except for the fact I don’t understand how (unless it’s cause-and-effect) I was able to carry a tenor for three years and not be uncomfortable, and yet be unable to tie halter top knots without feeling achy from the knot pressing into my neck.

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Overall, my day has been slow and steady, and I can’t complain on that front, especially because my room is clean and my bed is made (which never happens, and probably why I couldn’t live in a bachelor apartment). There have been other things that have been not-so-positive, but I’m trying to channel that energy into something positive, so that my apartment is clean and I’ll have meals ready-made for the rest of the week. Whether it’s good or bad, I have crazy energy and determination when I’m frustrated, sad and upset.

The other highlight of my day came when grocery shopping — I get made fun of for doing this, but if the cashier at Superstore doesn’t ask you if you want the deal of the week, you get it free. If it’s something I use/need (lip balm, hand cream, chocolate, snacks), I’ll do that. This time it was Tylenol.

If I feel the start of a headache, I usually won’t take anything — I’ll try to remedy it with food or sleep first; I took a lot of Advil in high school because of my wrist and now I’m trying to balance it out. Usually the only time I take Tylenol is if my stomach really hurts or my headache has gone past the point of food or sleep curing it. And now lately, with my wisdom teeth coming in (late bloomer, long story) I’ve been taking a lot of Tylenol. So of course I was happy when the girl forgot to ask me about the deal of the week and I got a large bottle of Tylenol for free. Stupid teeth.

It's a little pathetic that getting free Tylenol is one of the highlights of my day, but do you remember how much your wisdom teeth hurt?